February 7, 2004

Alabama – we stopped and had lunch outside of Mobile. That has to count for “visiting” the state, right?

{editor’s note: later we learned that RVers have different qualifications for what constitutes as a “visit” for the record. And, if you have a map of the states you can only put a state sticker on the map when those qualifications are met. So we had to decide on what our criteria would be – and we decided that we would have to spend the night in our RV to be classified as a “visit”. So, Alabama didn’t count…yet.}

We were a little nervous driving through the Mobile tunnel. This was our first tunnel in the RV. “Hazardous Materials” were not allowed to be transported through the tunnel, and considering we had a propane tank, we weren’t sure how we were classified.

Mississippi – We stayed in Biloxi, MS for several nights to play at the casinos. What we didn’t realize was that the railroad tracks ran right through the center of town. Our campsite was literally 20 feet to the tracks. After 2 nights (and days) of no sleep, we moved our RV to a spit of land that jutted out into the Gulf of Mexico. It was our first night of “boondocking”, which means no hook-ups – no sewer, no electricity, no water connections. But, it was as far away from trains as we could get! The land was owned by Treasure Bay Casino, so of course we gambled there that night. The players and the workers at these casinos really seemed relaxed and just had a good time.

Boondocking next to Treasure Bay's Pirate Ship

Another casino we enjoyed was the Beau Rivage. They have a microbrewery and it was Karaoke night. Normally, we do not enjoy Karaoke, but last night we heard the Sugarbeets (a group of sugar beet growers in town for a convention) singing Jon BonJovi’s “It’s My Life”. They were hysterical, and now “It’s My Life” has become my theme song and motto because “I want to live my life while I’m alive”.

During our visit we also toured Jefferson Davis’ home Beauvoir. Beautiful views of the Gulf.

Sadly our pet parakeet, Nikki, passed away in Biloxi. Nikki had been with us for 12 years and was a great little guy. He’ll be missed terribly. We wanted a place to bury Nikki that would be more ‘natural’, so we altered our plans to include a stop at a state park in LA. I just couldn’t imagine him being in his eternal resting place next to casinos and railroad tracks. He deserves more than that.